Parma officials hope voters will renew police levy on November ballot

The Police Department would lose one-third of its annual $10 million budget if voters do not renew a five-year police levy in November.

That is the message city officials are preaching to PTAs, homeowners associations and other civic groups.

The levy helps pay for salaries of police officers and detectives. It also helps cover the cost of equipment.

“We’ll be in dire straits if the levy does not pass,” said police Chief Robert Miller.

The proposed levy renewal will appear as Issue 78 on the November ballot.

Former police Chief Dan Hoffman — who is leading the levy-renewal campaign as an unpaid volunteer for the city — said police would have to eliminate its recently re-established K-9 units if the levy fails.

In addition, the department would have to reduce the number of police patrols. Miller said that is something Parma cannot afford from a safety perspective.

“We’re stretched pretty thin,” Miller said. “On a typical day, we may have 10-12 officers on the street at any given time, and that’s on a heavy day.

“It doesn’t take long before our resources get tied up on a domestic call or a traffic crash,” Miller said.

According to statistics provided by the city, Parma — compared to nine other nearby west-side suburbs — has been on the low end when it comes to the number of police officers for each 1,000 residents.

At the end of 2010, Parma had 1.16 officers for each 1,000 residents. The numbers were 1.24 in North Royalton, 1.44 in Parma Heights, 1.57 in Seven Hills, 1.72 in Strongsville, 1.8 in Lakewood, 2.13 in Middleburg Heights, 2.23 in Brook Park, 2.95 in Brooklyn and 4.8 in Independence.

Parma police Detective Marty Compton said those numbers are based on the 2010 U.S. Census and the FBI website.

Also included in the comparison were Euclid, which had 1.92 officers for each 1,000 residents; and Canton, Youngstown and Cleveland, where the numbers were 2.15, 2.55 and 4.03, respectively.

Parma has seen worse days when it comes to officer staffing. After a police overtime scandal in the early 2000s, voters stopped approving renewal levies.

As a result, the number of officers fell to 87 in 2006 and 2007.

“That’s dangerously low for a city the size of Parma,” Miller said.

Then Hoffman, as a new chief, convinced voters that the city had cleaned up and turned around the police department. He implemented new officer training programs. As a result, voters renewed the police levy in 2007.

Since then, the city has been increasing the number of officers. At the end of last year Parma had 97 officers and recently added five more for a total of 102.

Miller would some day like to have 110 officers because he said the number of service calls is steadily increasing.

In 2002, Parma police received 33,804 calls. The number rose to 36,317 in 2008; 33,696 in 2009; 37,180 in 2010; and 37,267 last year, according to police.

Miller said part of the reason for the increase is that young officers are generating their own calls by being proactive.

Officer salaries range from about $45,000 a year to about $60,000, Miller said.

Meanwhile, the city re-established its K-9 program in 2011. Two K-9 teams have been deployed more than 300 times for misdemeanor and felony drug investigations. The units also search for evidence, chase fleeing suspects and find lost residents.

“We were always calling on other cities for mutual aide for their K-9s,” Miller said. “Now we’re proud to have two of our own and they are doing exceptionally well.”

“The courts and jurors want to see that video all the time,” Miller said. “That’s how powerful it is.”

The levy also helps pay for cruisers — the city tries to replace 10 cruisers a year — and the crime-scene-investigation van.

“They’re solving crimes now by picking up DNA on a cigarette butt, or a suspect spits on the floor of a car and they swab it and identify people,” Miller said. “It’s pretty amazing.”

The city’s SWAT team van is a 1983 model. Miller said the city will have to replace it at some point down the road.

The department also owns state-of-the-art video equipment.

“We’ve had other departments come to us to help them enhance video and solve crimes,” Miller said.

The levy does not pay for officer training, but if the levy fails, there would be less money for training because more general fund money would go toward salaries. Hoffman said lack of training would hurt department morale.

“Because of the training they get, officers are more proficient and efficient,” Hoffman said.

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